Anapaya GATE/SCION vs. other technologies

To fully appreciate the strategic value of the Anapaya GATE, it is crucial to position it correctly within the landscape of existing enterprise networking and security technologies. This document compares the Anapaya GATE to Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW), Geo-IP Filtering, DDoS Mitigation Services, and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) & Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN).

Next-Generation firewalls

Next-Generation firewalls (NGFWs) have evolved from traditional firewalls by adding more advanced security features. They inspect network traffic on a deeper level to identify and block a wider range of threats.

• Capabilities: NGFWs typically include features like deep packet inspection (DPI), application awareness and control, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), and threat intelligence feeds. They can identify and block malicious traffic based on known attack signatures and can enforce security policies based on the application being used. Some NGFWs can also decrypt encrypted traffic to inspect its contents.
• Limitations: A primary weakness of NGFWs is that they are reactive. They identify and block known threats but are less effective against novel or zero-day attacks. Their effectiveness is dependent on up-to-date threat intelligence. Furthermore, the deep packet inspection they perform can introduce latency and become a performance bottleneck. When NGFWs replace other security solutions, they can also create a consolidated point of attack.
• Anapaya GATE advantage: The Anapaya GATE, based on SCION technology, offers a fundamentally different and proactive approach to security. It dramatically reduces the attack surface by making services invisible on the public Internet. Instead of inspecting all incoming traffic for threats, the GATE controls which networks can even see and connect to a service in the first place. This allows the Anapaya GATE and NGFW to work together synergistically. The GATE acts as a coarse-grained, high-impact filter, protecting the NGFW from being overwhelmed by volumetric DDoS attacks and the vast noise of Internet-wide reconnaissance scans. This allows the NGFW to dedicate its computationally expensive DPI resources to the much smaller, pre-qualified stream of traffic from trusted sources, increasing its effectiveness and reducing the alert burden on security teams.

Geo-IP filtering

Geo-IP filtering is a security measure that allows or blocks network traffic based on the geographic location of the IP address.

• Capabilities: Geo-IP filtering is a way of firewalling that uses a database that maps IP addresses to countries, cities, or regions to enforce access control policies.
• Limitations: Geo-IP filtering is not a reliable method for securing services. The accuracy of Geo-IP databases can be inconsistent due to outdated information and the transfer of IP address blocks. Crucially, Geo-IP filtering is enforced at the customer's perimeter. This means malicious traffic must first traverse the public Internet and consume the customer's Internet bandwidth before it is dropped by the firewall or often only on the application layer meaning malicious traffic has already reached the service before it is blocked. Finally, simple IP address spoofing will circumvent Geo-IP based filters easily.
• Anapaya GATE advantage: The Anapaya GATE provides a more robust and reliable method of geo-fencing. It operates at the network level, allowing organizations to control which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can announce the path to their services. This provides fine-grained control over where a service is visible and accessible, effectively creating a secure and verifiable perimeter that is not susceptible to the inaccuracies and bypass techniques that plague Geo-IP filtering.

tip

If want to learn more about the difference between Geo-IP filtering and Anapaya GATE, check out our blog post Myth #9 - Anapaya GATE is just a GeoIP filtering tool.

DDoS mitigation services

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) mitigation services are designed to protect online services from being overwhelmed by malicious traffic.

• Capabilities: These services employ various techniques, including absorbing and scrubbing large volumes of traffic, rate-limiting connections, and using blackhole routing to discard malicious traffic. Many services use signature-based detection to identify known attack patterns.
• Limitations: Traditional DDoS mitigation services are often reactive, kicking in after an attack has been detected. This can result in a period of service degradation or unavailability. Furthermore, "low and slow" application-layer attacks can be difficult to detect as they mimic legitimate traffic (false negatives). Finally, these reactive, scrubbing-based techniques always have a chance to inadvertently block legitimate traffic (false positives), which leads to service interuptions for legitimate users.
• Anapaya GATE advantage: The Anapaya GATE offers inherent protection against DDoS attacks by fundamentally changing how services are exposed to the Internet. By making services invisible to the public Internet and only accessible through trusted and explicitly allowed network paths, the vast majority of potential attackers cannot even discover the service to launch an attack. For services that require broader accessibility, the GATE with GlobalConnect allows for the rapid disconnection of misbehaving networks, effectively stopping an attack at its source without impacting legitimate users. This proactive approach prevents DDoS attacks rather than just mitigating them.

SASE & SD-WAN

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) are modern networking technologies that aim to provide more flexible and secure connectivity.

• Capabilities: SD-WAN optimizes traffic routing over various transport links, while SASE integrates networking with cloud-delivered security services like firewalls as a service (FWaaS) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).
• Limitations: Both SASE and SD-WAN are overlay technologies that typically use the public Internet as their underlay. This means they inherit the inherent security flaws and reliability issues of the Internet. SASE has powerful capabilities to authenticate users and authorize action, however, it is often delivered as a software agent-based solution making it only applicable to remote work use cases.
• Anapaya GATE advantage: SCION, the technology underpinning the Anapaya GATE, provides a secure and reliable underlay that does not inherit the weaknesses of the Internet. Furthermore, it is complementary to SASE: The GATE can protect the tunnels SASE agents establish over the Internet and thus drastically reduce the attack surface of the access path of the cloud-delivered security services. Furthermore, the GATE can also protect web-services such as e-banking applications or IoT backends for which SASE is not a fit.

	Anapaya GATE	Next-Generation firewall	Geo-IP filtering	DDoS mitigation services	SASE & SD-WAN
Security Model	✅ Proactive security by design. Reduces attack surface by controlling service visibility. Inherent protection against routing attacks.	⚠️ Reactive security based on deep packet inspection and threat intelligence to block known threats.	❌ Blocks traffic based on geographical IP lookup, which is often inaccurate and easily bypassed.	⚠️ Reactive mitigation of ongoing attacks, often with a time delay and potential to block legitimate traffic.	⚠️ Overlay security (VPN tunnels) on top of the insecure public internet. Inherits underlying routing vulnerabilities.
DDoS Protection	✅ Inherent prevention by making services invisible to attackers.	⚠️ Can block some application-layer attacks but is vulnerable to volumetric attacks.	❌ Ineffective as traffic already reaches the perimeter or even the service.	✅ Specialized in absorbing and filtering attack traffic, but is a reactive measure.	❌ No inherent DDoS protection.
Provider Lock-in	✅ Multi-provider by nature. Network operators cooperate in operating the GATE infrastructure and the SCION Internet has many different service providers.	⚠️ Different providers to choose from and if operated on-premise there is a the possiblity to switch providers. Hard to combine solutions of multiple providers.	⚠️ Different providers to choose from and if operated on-premise there is a the possiblity to switch providers. Hard to combine solutions of multiple providers.	❌ Single provider lock-in and very hard to switch.	❌ Single provider lock-in and very hard to switch.
Path Control	✅ Full end-to-end path selection.	❌ No control over the traffic path.	❌ No control over the traffic path.	❌ No control over the traffic path.	⚠️ First-hop/last-mile selection. No control over the "middle mile" of the Internet.
Primary Weakness	Newer technology, requiring ecosystem growth and adoption.	Reactive nature and performance bottlenecks. Ineffective against DDoS because traffic reaches perimeter.	Inaccurate databases leading to misclassifications of packets. Ineffective against DDoS because traffic reaches perimeter/service.	Reactive, potential for blocking legitimate traffic, and less effective against "low and slow" attacks. Single provider lock-in.	Dependence on the insecure and unreliable public Internet as an underlay. Single provider lock-in.